Government Moves To Regulate Practitioners Of Herbal/Traditional Medicine, UK

The National Institute of Medical Herbalists (NIMH) welcomes publication of the Department of Health (DH) public consultation document that reflects upon the recent recommendations of the Steering Group on the need for Statutory Regulation of practitioners of acupuncture, herbal medicine, TCM and other traditional medicine systems practised in the UK.


Statutory regulation of practitioners of herbal medicine and acupuncture has been advocated by a House of Lords' Select Committee and by three subsequent DH working groups as well as the vast majority of respondents to a previous DH consultation on this subject. Having looked closely at all other options, the NIMH is strongly in support of statutory regulation of this sector. All other options considered, only statutory regulation of this sector can enable the public to identify qualified practitioners and maintain the availability of a full range of herbal medicines in herbal practice.


The Report on Extending Professional and Occupational Regulation
published 16 July 09 said "Government has also agreed to extend regulation to practitioners of acupuncture, herbal medicine, and traditional Chinese medicine practised in the UK. " It also reports that the Health Professions Council has recommended these groups of healthcare professionals for statutory regulation. Given this it seems clear that statutory regulation of this sector should now proceed without further delay.


The public are at risk of having a much reduced access to herbal remedies from herbal practitioners unless the Government is able to get statutory regulation in place before the EU Directive on Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products comes into force in 2011." says Jane Gray, President of the NIMH.


Background


The publication of The Joint Consultation on the Report to Minsters from the Department of Health Steering Group on the Statutory Regulation of Practitioners of Acupuncture, Herbal Medicine, Traditional Chinese Medicine and Other Traditional Medicine Systems Practised in the UK marks a significant further step in the move towards statutory regulation of acupuncture, herbal/traditional medicine and traditional Chinese medicine. This process has been consistently and fully supported by the
Department of Health since it made, in 2001, a positive response to the report on CAM by the House of Lords' Select Committee on Science and Technology that called for the immediate regulation of acupuncture and herbal medicine practitioners. Since that time the DH has undertaken a scoping study and published timetables for statutory regulation
of this sector as well as the results of a previous DH public consultation about statutory regulation of these modalities that had an overwhelming 98.5% response in favour of such statutory regulation. More recently, the Government launched an independent working Group, under the chairmanship of Professor Michael Pittilo, to look again at the statutory regulation of this sector following publication in 2007 of the White Paper Trust, Assurance and Safety - The Regulation of Health Professionals in the 21st Century.


The Pittilo report published in June 2008 recommended that:


"There is an urgent need to proceed without delay with the statutory regulation of practitioners of acupuncture, herbal medicine, traditional Chinese medicine and other traditional medicine systems." The primary reasons for this recommendation are
to safeguard the public by allowing removal of failing practitioners from the statutory
register and to enable informed choice by those who wish to access these forms of
treatment
Statutory regulation of this sector will continue to permit the manufacture of herbal medicines by a third party for the use of individual patients. After the Traditional Medicinal Herbal Products Directive is fully implemented in 2011, this important facility will disappear unless these practitioners are statutorily regulated and thus able to have such products made up under Article 5 of
Directive 2001/83/EC (the main EU Medicines Directive).

Following the Government suggestion made in the White Paper (2007), 'Trust, assurance and safety - the regulation of health professionals in the 21st century', this sector should be regulated by the Health Professionals Council.
Source
National Institute of Medical Herbalist